Fast, actionable advice from Founders, CEOs, and Investors

John Moore Williams (Head of Content Strategy at Webflow) 10 UX copywriting tips for designers – InVision BlogWhen you’re writing copy: 1. Embrace the power of “you”: The word “you” catches attention and establishes a relationship between you and your reader. 2. Don’t make it about you [the seller]. I [the buyer] want to know what all that work means to me. 3. Don’t try to sound smart. Aim for a 5th-grade reading level.

John Moore Williams (Head of Content Strategy at Webflow) 10 UX copywriting tips for designers – InVision BlogWhen you’re editing copy: 4. Read it aloud. If it doesn’t sound right read aloud, it’s not conversational. 5. Be the editor writers hate. Aim to cut 50% of your word count with each editing round. 6. Remember that writing and editing are different. Don’t try to write and edit at the same time.

Alan Klement (Author and Consumer Insights Analyst) Replacing The User Story With The Job Story — Jobs To Be Done — MediumFrame every design problem as a Job, focusing on the triggering event or situation, the motivation and goal, and the intended outcome: When _____ , I want to _____ , so I can _____. For example, “when an important new customer signs up, I want to be notified, so I can start a conversation with them. ”

Tyler King (Co-founder @ Less Annoying CRM) How I monetized a blog in 30 days: what worked, and what didn’t#1 – Remove as much crap as possible from the sidebar. #2 – Use affiliate links to customize the ads for each post . I know it’s easy to just paste some AdSense code into your site and let Google figure out what to show your visitors, but I found that it’s better to target the ads yourself. #3 – Have the ads scroll with the page.

David Cummings (Managing Partner at Shotput Ventures) Account Sign-up Page Best Practices | David Cummings on StartupsRemove all unnecessary links, which are usually 90% of the ones of the page. Minimize the header and text as much as possible. Then, cut it down even further. Reduce the number of fields, especially required fields, to the bare minimum. Once you have someone’s email address you can always market to them later to fill out more fields. Keep all the fields in the form above the fold so that the user doesn’t have to scroll down at all. Test and enfor… (read more)

Fred Wilson (Co-Founder and Partner at Union Square Ventures) Single User Utility In A Social System – AVCOne of the most important lessons we took from delicious was the value of single user utility in social systems. It might seem odd that systems designed to leverage interactions between people can have (should have?) single person utility. But I strongly believe they should. The first users of delicious were barely aware of and rarely used its social aspects. They just wanted to store their bookmarks in the cloud instead of in their browser. And… (read more)

Fred Wilson (Co-Founder and Partner at Union Square Ventures) The Truth About Gamification – AVCGamification can amplify things people already like to do. But it cannot get someone to do something they aren’t inclined to do in the first place.

Fred Wilson (Co-Founder and Partner at Union Square Ventures) Some Quick Thoughts on I/O – AVCHere, in no particular order, are the things that I am most excited about or thinking the most about: 1) Smart notifications. 2) Android mirroring on Chromecast. 3) In app data available in web search. 4) Wear, Car, TV.